Conventionally, what has been practiced is to continuously feed a plurality of elastic members in an expanded state, and fix them to a continuously fed web's one surface at a plurality of places at intervals in the web width direction, to thereby drastically enhance the shrinkage of the web. Here, in order to control a positional range, a direction and the like that enhance the shrinkage of the web, sometimes intervals at which the elastic members are paralleled adjacent to one another in the web width direction are varied. In this case, the paralleled intervals are varied by forcibly changing the positions (fixed positions) where the elastic members are brought into contact with the web's one surface.
Conventionally, in order to control the paralleled intervals, what has been used is an elastic member guide device that includes a guide having a plurality of guide holes, with one elastic member passed through each guide hole. The shaft that supports the guide is driven to perform a prescribed reciprocating motion in the web width direction by a traverse cam. The fixed position intervals among the elastic members are varied by moving the guide in the web width direction.
However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 4-317649 (FIG. 6, paragraph Nos. 0013 and 0015 to 0018)does not specifically disclose how the guide should be moved in the web width direction for widening the fixed position intervals of the elastic members, which are merely passed through respective holes provided at one identical guide. Even if the momentum of the reciprocating motion of the guide is used to dispersedly arrange the elastic members, it is difficult to form an estimation of the extent of the dispersion, and hence, adjustment must be carried out through repetition of trial and error. Further, control of the extent of the dispersion based solely on the reciprocating motion of the guide is limited, and the range in which the fixed position intervals in the web width direction among the elastic members is also limited.